MANILA – A Monetary Board (MB) member is confident that the Philippine economy will grow six percent this year despite the below-target expansion in the first half of the year.
In an interview after the Bankers Institute of the Philippines general membership meeting in Makati City Tuesday, MB member Bruce Tolentino told journalists that a six-percent output is “still possible.”
In the first half of the year, the gross domestic product expanded to 5.5 percent, below the government’s full year target of six to seven percent.
From 6.3 percent in the last quarter of 2018, growth slowed to 5.6 percent in the first quarter and to 5.5 percent in the second quarter this year.
Authorities attributed this to the delay in the approval of this year’s national budget, which hampered the implementation of infrastructure projects, among others.
To address the slowdown of domestic growth, economic managers said the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and the Department of Transportation (DOTr) have been tasked to implement catch-up program to help boost growth.
Tolentino added that September government spending was “not as good as we thought they would be”.
He said this is the reason why both the DOTr and the DPWH need to spend some more and lift government expenditures.
“We are lucky the weather is cooperating. If the weather cooperates, then we can push construction period much faster,” he said.
Data released by the Bureau of the Treasury Tuesday showed that government spending last September grew by 39.01 percent to P415.1 billion from P298.6 billion during the same month last year.
In the first nine months this year, government spending rose by 5.51 percent to P2.626 trillion against the P2.489 trillion last year. (PNA)
